Queretaro - Cars and Clowns

One of the things that seems natural to do every weekend is to venture outside of town and explore. San Miguel is great, but it's fun to see something completely different at least once a week. So today we went into Queretaro. It was about an hour away by car, and with a population of 600,000 is quite a bit bigger than San Miguel.

Our primary goal was to see the Carrerra Pamericana, a road race we heard about last week. A hundred or so vintage race cars would be coming into Queretaro, and the family of Bryce's friend Matt from San Francisco knows one of the drivers. Plus, we've heard nice things about the town, and wanted to check it out. Fernando would be joining us for the adventure as well.

Once we arrived, we noticed a nice clean city center area. There were four main squares of activity, plus a large park. After we had a quick snack, we ventured into one of the squares, and the kids were immediately attracted to a clown making balloon figures. It so happened that they were doing the same thing that morning. This payaso made some amazing things: Laurel got a puppy on a leash, Fernando an airplane, and Bryce an awesome motorcycle. The clown claimed to be able to make 60 different things. And there must have been 6 or 7 others like him throughout the square.


Bryce and Fernando with the payaso


Laurel's balloon puppy

From there, we explored the city center. Queretaro has a European feel to it in some parts, like this walkway that joins two of the squares:


Downtown Queretaro

There were some cool fountains too. Sue and I liked this one:

Dog Fountain

We had lots of time before the cars would arrive, so we got ice cream, and explored the four main squares a bit. There seemed to be clowns everywhere, as another clown was doing a show in one of the smaller squares, with his clown buddies and a decent crowd watching.

During one of the shows they mentioned a circus performance in town, and there was a staff spinner doing a preview of the show. I tracked him down, and asked if they were going to be doing poi as well. He said yes, and gave me a flier for the show, and told me it was at the "dog fountain". I went back to where I thought he directed me, but no show. I guess I'll have to wait to see Mexican poi spinners until another time.

Finally, the cars started arriving at about five o'clock. Our friend-of-a-friend Doug Mockett was in second place. After several cars came by, Sue and Bryce went over to talk to Doug, and he was kind enough to let Bryce sit in the car for a photo:


Bryce driving Doug Mockett's car


Doug Mockett's car

And if you're a car freak, here's a video montage of some of the cars as they rumbled into town:



We hung out until six thirty, then got our ride back to San Miguel. Everyone was exhausted. It was a busy day, but great fun. I can't wait to do some more exploring - but not right away.